Stakeouts And Shouted Questions

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For years there was a sort of gentleman's agreement among reporters who covered public figures that certain matters were off limits. A number of Presidents, from Warren Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt through John F. Kennedy, were widely known to be conducting extramarital affairs, or suspected of it. Yet reporters for the most part avoided the subject in print. The belated disclosure of these affairs -- especially the reports of Kennedy's many sexual flings, including one with a woman linked to Mafia figures -- helped bring about the new climate. "The rules have certainly changed," says Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee, who covered Kennedy as a reporter and editor for Newsweek and became a good friend. "You couldn't get away with that now."

Other changes have made journalists more willing to broach such previously unmentionable subjects. A succession of public scandals involving politicians in the '60s and '70s (including Senator Edward Kennedy's car accident at Chappaquiddick, which resulted in the death of a female companion, and Representative Wilbur Mills' drunken shenanigans at the Tidal Basin with a former stripper) brought the issue of womanizing to the forefront. With the breakdown of sexual taboos in the 1960s, public discussion of such topics became more acceptable. At the same time, with the changing status of women, society has grown less tolerant of the macho dalliances of married men.

As candidates depend increasingly on slick media advisers and "image campaigns," the press takes on a greater role in trying to illuminate the person behind the facade. What's more, the pervasiveness of the electronic media has conditioned Americans to expect a more complete picture of their political leaders. In the days before TV, a clear distinction could be maintained in the print press between politicians' "onstage" and "offstage" activities. Now, with cameras and microphones following them everywhere, that distinction has broken down. The White House tapes showed what President Nixon was "really" like; network crews pursue Presidents even on their vacations.

Even so, the Herald's decision to conduct a stakeout of Gary Hart's home marked something of a watershed for political journalism. The investigation began with two anonymous telephone calls to Political Editor Tom Fiedler from a woman who claimed that a friend of hers was having an affair with Hart. She cited several long-distance phone calls between Hart and the woman (whom she described but refused to identify), recounted a yacht trip they had taken together, and said the couple planned to rendezvous at Hart's Washington town house that Friday. Fiedler was skeptical. But when several details checked out (including, Fiedler discovered, a last-minute switch in Hart's weekend campaign itinerary from Louisville to Washington), the newspaper decided to follow up. Jim McGee, one of the paper's top investigative reporters, hopped a plane to Washington early Friday evening.